Why Is The Mail Still So Slow? (From The Dispatch)

Lexington’s Paul Steidler was extensively quoted by The Dispatch in an article discussing the continued delays of first-class mail delivery in the U.S. The article predicts it will be a while before delivery times return to what they were in 2019.

Steidler noted that the timeliness of mail delivery has continually slowed since 2012. He attributed this phenomenon to the shift toward prioritizing packages over mail.

“It’s been this entire orientation, wanting to chase after packages, which are a competitive product, which many in the Postal Service see as the salvation for the Postal Service, because volumes of packages are expected to grow [and] volumes of mail are expected to decline. The Postal Service for hundreds of years has been delivering mail. They have the systems, they have the processes to do that very well. … It’s in their institutional DNA. The packages are much more difficult and much more expensive to deliver—and frankly not as important,” said Steidler.

Steidler also expressed hope that the Postal Regulatory Commission would speak out against a Postal Service proposal to further slow mail standards. “Before any consideration is given to an advisory opinion supporting USPS’s service standards reductions, USPS should be ordered to provide information about the costs of meeting the current standards, instituted less than seven years ago in 2014,” said Steidler.

Read the full article here.